Björn Jonson (born 12 April 1940) is a
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
professor emeritus
''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus".
...
in
clinical physiology
Clinical physiology is an academic discipline within the medical sciences and a clinical medical specialty for physicians in the health care systems of Sweden, Denmark, Portugal and Finland. Clinical physiology is characterized as a branch of physi ...
at
Lund University
Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...
in Sweden. He developed the modern servo
ventilator
A ventilator is a type of breathing apparatus, a class of medical technology that provides mechanical ventilation by moving breathable air into and out of the lungs, to deliver breaths to a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathi ...
.
In 1964, Jonson returned from Atlanta, USA, as a 24-year-old student, following a 3-month training in the field of respiratory physiology by professor Arend Bouhuys. Jonson was employed by Håkan Westling's newly established Department of Clinical Physiology in Lund. He was given responsibility for the department's lung physiology part and soon found that the equipment of the time had major flaws. In collaboration with Sven Ingelstedt, he began to think about how devices that should support patients' breathing should actually work. He was given freedom to design a breathing machine, and in collaboration with Sven-Gunnar Olsson, an engineer at Elema-Schönander AB, a first model of what later became the very successful Servo Ventilator was created. In collaboration with the anesthesiologist Lars Nordström, the Servo Ventilator was introduced internationally. The respirator not only supported the patient's breathing according to their needs, but also provided measurement values that could be used to diagnose and monitor the patient's breathing problems, thus contributing to the development of specialized intensive care units.
References
Living people
1940 births
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